Why An Uncensored App Store Matters

As gatekeepers of the dominant app stores, Apple and Google decide which apps billions of people can download. Their decisions—often made behind closed doors—shape what people can access, use, and even imagine. They determine which apps are discoverable and which never reach users at all.

Although both companies claim to reject apps when they fail their standards for security, privacy, or user experience, they can also—and do—block or remove apps that challenge their revenue model or worldview. In an instant, millions of users can be cut off. No appeals court. No public explanation. No real accountability. One decision by a private company can erase an entire idea from public reach.

This isn’t hypothetical, it’s already happening:

• Starting in 2014, Google twice removed the privacy app Disconnect from Google Play, saying it interfered with third-party “services”—in practice, blocking tracking and ads. The move protected lucrative revenue streams, not user privacy.
• In 2020, Apple pulled Fortnite from the App Store after Epic introduced a direct payment option that bypassed Apple’s 30% commission fee— a decision that locked out millions of paying users.
• That same year, Apple pressured Proton VPN to remove references in its App Store description about helping users access blocked websites—limiting a tool meant to support open access to information.
• In 2021, both Apple and Google removed the Parler app following the January 6th attack. The companies said Parler wasn’t adequately moderating violent content, but the move revealed a deeper truth: public discourse is now largely controlled by a handful of powerful companies.  

Regardless of one’s politics or platform preferences, the implications are clear: when Big Tech controls access to information and innovation, they control the direction of society.

The consequences of app censorship are far-reaching. It limits choice, weakens privacy, and stifles innovation. And perhaps most concerning: the ability of the person who owns the phone to access information depends on decisions they will never see or influence. 

Trust In People Over Platforms

At Unplugged, we reject the notion that people need corporate chaperones deciding which apps they can access. Smartphone owners should be able to choose the tools that fit their lives—and the ideas they want to explore—rather than rely on systems that pre-screen the world before they ever reach them.

But the power to choose means little without the power to protect your data. Even the third-party apps available in Unplugged's App Center don’t always respect user autonomy. Devices should enforce boundaries to protect the person holding them. This is the philosophy behind UP Phone’s Firewall and OS protections, which block third-party tracking and keep personal data in the hands of its rightful owner—access shouldn’t come at the expense of privacy.

A Marketplace for Ideas—Not Gatekeepers

Groundbreaking ideas often emerge from the margins, precisely because they push against the dominant powers. Ironically, Apple was once the upstart pushing back, not the gatekeeper.

In a tightly controlled app ecosystem, developer submissions can be silently blocked or never see the light of day—preventing ideas like alternative communication tools, privacy-first social platforms, and new business models can dissolve. Innovation gets extinguished before it even reaches the public.  

UP Phone’s App Center is an open environment where developers can experiment freely, compete fairly, and reach users—without having to bend to the will of Big Tech. And unlike the others, Unplugged doesn’t charge developers a commission to be included in its App Center. Their revenue belongs to them—not to a trillion-dollar toll collector.

Freedom Is a Feature

Smartphones are the most personal objects most of us own. They shape the information we see, the conversations we have, even our actions and movements.  

Yet despite that intimacy, we’re granted surprisingly little transparency or control. If technology is meant to empower freedom—not enforce control— then we must rethink the devices we build and buy to ensure the person holding them is the one in charge.

A more open and independent digital future is not just possible — it’s already being built. One where people choose their tools, their information, and their boundaries. One where bold ideas don’t need permission to exist. Because the future of technology should belong to the people who use it.